Noosa National Park - Emu Mountain Section and Peregian Section

No time to get away on holidays at the moment, so snuck in another local short hike.  We parked at the southern end of the Emu Mountain section of Noosa National Park (note there is no formal carpark, just an entry point off a residential street). First up was the Hakea Walk.  This heads through coastal bushland. On reaching the road we turned right, walked along a short way and then turned right back into the National Park on the Emu Mountain Summit Walk.

https://parks.des.qld.gov.au/parks/noosa

https://parks.des.qld.gov.au/parks/noosa/journeys/hakea-walk

https://parks.des.qld.gov.au/parks/noosa/journeys/emu-mountain-summit-walk

At the summit we paused to admire the view, which was surprisingly good given the poor weather and the short climb.

We returned to the Hakea Walk via a link track which you can see from the summit. After a period we turned left onto another link track that took us through to David Low Way.

After crossing David Low Way we walked the short Ocean Beach Walk through the swampy land behind the dunes and spent some time atop the dunes watching the wind whip the top off the wild waves.  As it was high tide and rough it was not a day for lingering on the shore.

https://parks.des.qld.gov.au/parks/noosa/journeys/ocean-beach-walk

17 December - Hakea Walk, Fitzgerald River National Park

17 December 2016 – 199 357

Hakea Walk, Fitzgerald River National Park

Every year near Christmas Drew and I do some sort of physical challenge, and Hayden started doing this last year when he was ten.  Today was the day we had picked for this year’s Christmas challenge – to walk further than we had previously walked in one day on this trip.  We walked from the Hamersley Inlet Campground to Whoogarup Lookout and back.  

https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/park/fitzgerald-river

https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/site/hakea-trail

https://trailswa.com.au/trails/hakea-walk-trail/need-to-know

This began as a stroll through woodlands to Hamersley Inlet and then a walk along the beach.  Once again the power of the Southern Ocean was on display and with the vertical rocks on the shoreline I certainly would not want to run aground here.  The shells on the beach here were amazing. On one side of a headland were pink shells and on the other side of the headland all greys and blues.  We then climbed up to the top of some cliffs and continued along through the low coastal scrub.  The number of birds we could hear was magnificent. There was also an amazing profusion of wildflowers.  The foliage of many of the plants is incredibly spiky – long pants are a must when hiking in southern Western Australia.  At Whalebone Creek Campground there were toilets, a sleeping shelter and water tanks, as well as picnic tables in the shade.  On the way back, we stopped here for lunch.  We also stopped at one of the sheltered beaches on the way back for a swim – just beautiful, but certainly would not want to swim in the open ocean here. All up we walked 27.5km in 7 hours – a big day and well done by all!